Relish’d Burger Bar – Oink Burger

While I live over the other side of town, I needed to collect my car from the western suburbs from where it had a sleepover the night before, as it had consumed too many beverages to drive home. Boy was I hungry.

At that moment, much to my own surprise that my brain was in a functioning state, I remembered a new place on Anzac Highway that my colleague and I had stumbled across in our internet ..stalking… last week. Relish’d Burger Bar. I haven’t been very inspired to write lately so figured I would try something new to get the juices flowing again.

The Venue, Staff & Service.

Bewildered by the countless positive reviews on urbanspoon, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It was almost too good to be true. These days I try not to get myself too worked up for anything until I check it out for myself, as this tends to lead to disappointment.

Relishd, from what I can tell is a very new little shop on Anzac Highway just across the road from the Watermark Hotel. There’s room inside to have a seat with a few mates and feed your faces, a few stools that look out the window and a couple of tables outside. Overall impression was neat, very clean and welcoming. The staff, from my limited interaction, consisted of a couple of pretty cool blokes taking people’s money and handing them burgers in return. Were they any good at this? Let’s
see.

The Burger

Meat Patty

Exceptional. I will go as far to say as this is pretty much a larger version of what you’ll find in a Burger Theory burger. It’s a very tough call, but they are definitely in the same ball park as those dished out from the bowels of the black truck, with most of the other burgers I’ve had to date falling way behind in the patty stakes. The beef is clearly freshly ground. It is cooked perfectly, with just a slight pinkness to the centre and also cooked consistently (I won’t lie this will be my second burger from relishd now). It’s juicy, its packed with cow flavour and has a wonderful texture. It both compliments the other ingredients and boldly stands out at the same time. Bravo.

Fillings & Roll

The roll utilised is a super light, super fresh white brioche style bun, topped with sesame seeds. Lightly toasted, it is an engineering marvel. It is the perfect size and perfect texture to carry the ingredients without being overbearing and over filling. Handle your dinner too roughly and you’ll find that it does come apart pretty easy but take your time and you will enjoy.

The Oink Burger has bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato caramelised onion, fresh herb aioli and “relishd to goodness”. I have no idea what that means, but I can only assume its their house made tomato relish. You can do as I did and add a fresh fried egg for a dollar – and if you please, beetroot, which I didn’t in this case.

Each and every item was pretty much without fault. The lettuce was cos variety, super fresh and damn crisp. Im not entirely sure what cheese was used however it was melted to perfection over the patty and had adequate cheesy flavour. The bacon was cooked well and had a full and wonderful piggy flavour, not bland at all. The house made sauces are amazing and compliment the burger entirely without taking away from other ingredients. Superb. Only thing I could change if I could, and I would – is to make the fried egg yolk ever so slightly runny. While the egg addition was good, I personally find an overcooked yolk quite boring and also texturally a little off putting.

Sides

My friend and I got a large chips to share which were excellent. Not the best ive had but all the hallmarks of a sensational chip and right up there in the upper echelon of fried potato slivers. Cut a little thicker than normal, they have a crisp shell and a super fluffy interior. Rosemary and flaky sea salt is the topping and they go down a treat. Also grabed one of their dipping sauces – we had the Chilli & Lime Aioli and enjoyed every last drop.

Value

$10.90 for the oink plus $1 for the egg. $4 for the large chips and 70 cents for the aioli. Outstanding value given the content. Nil complaints for the cost to value ratio.

Overall/Summary

Well. I must say I am super impressed. After all the hype, Relish’d definitely succeeded in living up to their growing reputation. I haven’t read nor seen any of the negative reviews but im sure they are unsubstantiated. There is always some sook somewhere out to ruin it for everyone else. So as mentioned, ive been to relishd twice now and have enjoyed a consistently good burger experience. Its been fairly quiet both times so it would be interesting to see how they perform under pressure. At this point I will note already that the delay between money changing hands and being handed a burger was a little lengthy but once you sink your teeth into your order, it all makes sense. Everything is made to order, with love and care and the result truly shows. Well done.

One thought on “Relish’d Burger Bar – Oink Burger”

[…] ended in personal disappointment in stark contrast to my colleagues experience, which can be read here. Given this great review, and on the back of others reporting good things, I decided to give them […]